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And Dennis Rodman gets his one hour radio show gig for today only (espn1000 lunch with a legend series) with in 10 minutes and this tweet CarmenDeFalco Carmen DeFalco
RT @sugashayne3: @espnchijon @CarmenDeFalco how much coke can 1 guy do before noon? jesus

Booey/[998] - that's a good point about home/road splits, I hadn't considered that. Utah is historically excellent at home as well. As for this, though:

they seem like an all offense/no defense run-and-gun type team that could beat anyone when they're on but lose to anyone when they're not.

I think pace factor is playing a role in this perception. They are run-and-gun - the Rockets play faster than anyone in the league, and so they are 27th in points allowed per game - but they're 16th in points allowed per possession. Their defense isn't as bad as the raw numbers would indicate. Utah, FWIW, is 24th in that same stat.

Joe C #1003 - Good points. I haven't actually looked too closely at the advanced stats. I was going mainly off the basic ones and the few Rockets games that I've seen. They could easily be better than I'm giving them credit for.

1010 - the rox are two different teams on offense. one is when the point guard (usually lin, but also beverley or toney douglas) dribbles the ball to halfcourt, hands off to harden, three guys stand around the three point line, and they play iso/shoot a 3. that offense probably doesn't make the playoffs.

the other offense, where lin / beverley drives and they have harden ready for a pass (in one on one environment), and someone camping at the 3 point line - that team's pretty good.

I agree that Rudy worked very well with Randolph, et al, in 2010-2011. I will note that the one big difference between then and the next two seasons is that Rudy shot 40% from 3 that season before he got hurt. Rudy Gay and that lineup is definitely workable/excellent if/when he's knocking down 3s. At the time I was hopeful that it was an actual step forward, but it looks more likely that that season was a fluke. I don't have any idea what his true talent from 3 is anymore.

On the PF issue, I should note that when I said he played a fair amount of 4 last season, I knew that number was 16% from 82 games. That seems like a fair amt of time at a spot for somebody like Rudy who is both shortish and skinny for a PF to me, but that's pretty subjective. As to whether he was better at 3 or 4, I got to be honest, it looks to me like 82games says he was better at the 4. It's got him +64 at PF and only +31 at SF. Better on offense by quite a bit and a little worse on defense. There's a strong possibility that I don't know what I'm looking at here, so I may be interpreting this all wrong.

As to your last point, I absolutely agree. I don't want to oversell this argument about Rudy dragging their offense down. A lot of this has been me thinking out loud. There's almost certainly some degree of the team's offensive sins being attributed to Rudy's faults unfairly. My main thought is that for whatever reason, Rudy's role in the offense had seemed to harden into a lot of the things that he is least good at. I still kind of think that there was probably an opportunity for the coaching staff to alter that outcome, but it might have been too late. The main culprit is probably Randolph's impact on the offense. He kind of cramps some of the things Rudy can do well and it may be that him and Rudy together is just too much ball-stopping for one offense to handle.

I guess my main idea for how this trade might make the Grizzlies a better offense is not so much that Rudy sucks and they are replacing him, although that's been semi-true this year, but more that splitting with Rudy might force Lionel and the team to break some bad habits that they had developed with Rudy. Prince doesn't have to have 16 shots a game and he doesn't have to have specific times where the team just decides to give him a possession to do something on his own. He can get shots when they come. Ideally that will lead to Marc having a bigger role and making more decisions with the ball. If they just give a bunch of iso possessions to Prince or Conley or something else, yeah that's not going to help and they'll probably be worse. Although again, I'm not sure that they're likely to be much worse than thy already have been this year.

I guess my main idea for how this trade might make the Grizzlies a better offense is not so much that Rudy sucks and they are replacing him, although that's been semi-true this year, but more that splitting with Rudy might force Lionel and the team to break some bad habits that they had developed with Rudy.

Meat, they're probably gonna lose tomorrow in Atlanta too. Gibson and Deng both played all 48 (well Deng got a 4 second break in the third) and good chance everyone is out again. Then they play in Indy Monday. Bad time to be so shorthanded.

NEW YORK (AP) -- NBA players put union chief Billy Hunter on an indefinite leave Friday, two weeks after a report they commissioned questioned Hunter's leadership and criticized him for bad decisions and questionable business practices.

Gay at PF last season: their +/- was better with him at the four, his PER-PERopp was better at the three. Combine them (weighted avg), he looked better at the three.

True talent from three: beats me. :)

It's funny, we've sort of swapped positions from our initial takes - I do think I might be overstating my concern for Memphis or regard for Gay (a player whose game I've never cared for)... there's likely some devil's advocacy in my statements...

I am hopeful they will use the tax room and all the exceptions they've got now to do something else before the deadline. Dunleavy would be alright with me. I'd also be interested in seeing them get Redick if the price was right.

It was nice to see Rudy play well for the Raptors last night. Especially in a beat-down of the Clippers.

While the Bulls aren't that big with Noah and Boozer out*, that still doesn't feel like a fair description. In fact, since Deng played the 4, the Bulls had tons of ballhandling tonight. Gibson played 45min, dominated Horford and had 19/19 (he's really come around lately after a bad start to the season). Deng had 25/14, but gave almost that exact thing up to Josh Smith. Sometimes a team just has your number, and I'd say that's the case for the Hawks against the Bulls this year - I doubt it actually finishes this way, but right now the Bulls and Hawks would meet in the first round of the playoffs in the 3/6 matchup. I didn't expect this win, and the Bulls totally dominated the 2nd half.

*Nazr Mohammed didn't play a minute. He's so, so washed up. There's got to be another minimum ambulatory big guy out there worth taking his roster spot.

Also, Jimmy Butler is pretty awesome, I think he has the potential to be a plus starter at the 2 or the 3, and may make deng expendable in a trade

Moses, I'm coming around to Nate, if nothing else he comes in as a high energy guy with the potential to blow up in any game he plays, seems like a good backup to rose, and well if the crapton, rip and butler arnt getting it done, pair him with rose to let rose move about more freely

meat, he needs to get better with his jump shot and range to play the 2 long term/against good teams. But yes, I do hope he is the eventual starter at SG. I'm not in a hurry for them to replace Deng, but considering the wear and tear he's taken and his injury history, it wouldn't be surprised if he needs to be replaced sooner rather than later.

I knew Nazr Mohammed was still in the NBA but I thought he was on either the Nets (confusing him with fellow elderly ex-76er Jerry Stackhouse) or the Knicks (confusing him with Rasheed Wallace, Marcus Camby, Benoit Benjamin, Rick Mahorn, and whoever else they have).